Director Rob Bowman, having cut his genre teeth helming numerous
episodes of the hugely popular X-Files TV series and the feature
film based on that program, now offers an original science-fantasy
adventure-thriller with no pretensions other than to deliver old-fashioned
monster-movie excitement featuring the most realistic-looking dragons
state-of-the-art CGI SPFX can contrive.

He
succeeds and the beasts are......well, beastly in the best sense of the
word! Reign of Fire opens with a brief prologue set in
contemporary London where a young boy Quinn Abercromby (Ben Thornton),
visiting the construction site supervised by his Mom, Karen (Alice Krige),
happens to be there when the deep underground excavations awaken a
long-slumbering, huge, fire-breathing dragon, the first of a plague that
scourges the world, (effectively shown in a newsreel montage). Shift to
the year 2020 when most of civilization lies in scorched ruins, reduced
to ashes by countless flying reptiles.
Enclaves
of the few surviving humans struggle for survival while hoping to avoid
the dragons who, in their ravenous hunger, have begun to feed on one
another. Grown up Quinn (Christian Bale), leader of the Northumberton
settlement holed up in a castle fortified with remnants of 21st century
technology, tries to keep the families in his charge safe and to protect
their crops from dragon fire, with the help of his best friend Creedy
(Gerard Butler). Internal dissension caused by one of the fathers, Eddie
(David Kennedy), trying to steal away with his family to seek for
imagined more secure refuge, precipitates the opposite when the activity
provokes a fearsome aerial reptilian attack.

Afterward,
the badly shaken Quinn then must deal with the arrival of a combative
American, Van Zan (Matthew McConnaughey), am embodiment of macho with
shaven head, rough beard, robust physique, tattoos and the constant
presence of a cigar butt in his mouth. The newcomer brings with him a
tough-gal helicopter pilot Alex (Izabella Scorupco) and a group of
gung-ho Yank military men who have impressive hardware (including the
lady'schopper) with which to hunt dragons.
They have worked out the enemy's biology and have come all the way to
England in search of the crucial target---the lone male dragon, the
fiercest of them all---reasoning that if they kill the progenitor, the
females, having no way to fertilize their eggs, will die out within a
generation. This concept rather strains the credulity unfortunately.
Once Quinn and Van Zan work out their rivalry for command authority (not
without a bit of fisticuffs), they team up to confront the nemesis in
his lair in the heart of the ruins of London at the same site where the
young Quinn witnessed the unleashing of the apocalyptic onslaught.

Along
the way to the showdown the audience gets treated to excellent
performances by the principals who acquit themselves admirably in the
roles of action heroes with Bales's understated, haunted resolve
contrasting nicely with McConnaughey's Captain Ahab-like zeal. Scuropco
adds refreshing spunk to the mix, her cool-headed devotion to the cause
not preventing her showing affection to Quinn despite her loyalty
to Van Zan. The relentlessly grim and tense
mood of the movie pauses for one memorable amusing moment when a famous
scene from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back gets acted out for
the community's children as if it were an original bed-time story.
Reign of Fire convincingly depicts ravaged countrysides and the
smoldering remnants of London---a gritty and grungy environment
reflected on the cast---all quite believably grubby. This just makes the
dazzling dragons that much more effective, the most impressive
renderings of these creatures ever seen on screen. Anatomically
credible, deadly, lightning swift, striking quickly and then moving
on---genuinely scary---an excellent blending of CGI with live-action.

This film delivers its action, monster-killing thrills and chills,
avoiding any campiness, sincerely telling its simple tale of a small
group of humans struggling against impossible odds with vivid characters
to care about and root for, making it easy to suspend disbelief. Some
flaws were noticeable: a rather too abrupt ending; the absence of ethnic
diversity among the all-white cast; no explanation for where the fuel
for all those tanks, the helicopter and the armored vehicles came from
or how the
Americans
got across the Atlantic unscathed; not to mention the highly implausible
draconian biology.

Reign of Fire, nitpicking aside, still can be considered very
worthwhile viewing for genre and action-adventure fans with its fine
visuals, excellent cast, superb atmospheric score that perfectly
enhances the suspenseful mood. The dragons definitely reign supreme.